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two carved pumpkins on table
two carved pumpkins on table
Photo by Bekir Dönmez from Unsplash
Style > Fashion

An Unprepared Girl’s Quick and Easy Costumes

Elle Horst
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Brown chapter.

As a college student, you’ve been busy. You have classes, midterms, and extracurriculars, so Halloween has – understandably – been the last thing on your mind. But all of a sudden, It’s here. Suddenly, your friends are preparing for days of holiday fun, with costume after costume. And you are caught fully unprepared!

Spirit is picked clean. Even Amazon Prime can’t save you. But luckily, I can! Here are five simple, easy costumes from clothing items and supplies you likely already have on hand, can borrow from a friend, or can easily get supplies for at your nearest drug store.

  1. Secret Agent

This simple costume is seriously easy to recreate. Grab some dark sunglasses and don an all-black fit of your choosing – anything from a blazer or trench coat to a black top and skirt. Bonus points for some accessories like boots and a manilla envelope with “Top Secret” on it!

2. Cow Girl

If you’re a girl in college, chances are you or one of your friends has these necessary accessories. Grab a pair of cowboy boots, a fun hat, a denim skirt, a bandana, and a tank top, and voila! You can officially “howdy” your way over to the nearest function.

3. Damien from Mean Girls

For the girls that like a good (and very comfy) pop-culture reference, Damien from Mean Girls is a super easy recreation. Grab a pair of sunglasses, put on a sweatshirt (bonus points if it’s blue), and tighten the hood. Grab a piece of paper and quickly write his iconic phrase: She doesn’t even go here! So people can easily get the reference.

4. A Tourist

This one’s an extremely easy classic. Grab an Aloha shirt, some shorts, sunglasses, a camera, and a bikini top and Boom! You are Providence’s newest sightseer. Feel free to accessories with any other tourist essentials you have lying around – perhaps a fanny pack, selfie-stick, or sun hat.

5. A Frat Boy

Grab an oversized dress shirt, some shorts, some longer socks, sneakers, and (of course) a red solo cup, and you are officially one of the boys. Bonus points if you add facial hair to really lean into the vibe.

Elle Horst

Brown '26

Elle Horst is a junior at Brown University concentrating in Business/Economics. She hails from the Bay Area, CA but has fallen in love with life on the East Coast and Brown! This is her third year as a member of Her Campus, for which she is the Director of Marketing. Outside of her studies, she is involved in numerous organizations on campus, including Women in Business as a Marketing and Communications Chair, Fashion at Brown as the Web Design Director, and the Kappa Delta sorority. In her free time, she loves cooking, work out classes, coffee dates, and reading! She can't wait to give readers a glimpse into life as a student at Brown and the greater Providence area!